Kyle Edmund also moved up to 24th in the world rankings.
Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Kyle Edmund replaces Andy Murray as Britain’s No1 player on Monday and the 23-year-old Yorkshireman concedes his elevation owes as much to the Scot’s enforced nine-month sabbatical as his own rapid improvement over the past year.

His challenge now, as one of only 12 British players in the 52-year history of the Open era to wear the domestic crown, is to establish his own identity on the international stage as the game enters a period of uncertainty not witnessed since before the rise of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The subsequent rivalries of Murray and Novak Djokovic consolidated that hegemony but Nadal, Murray, Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka are hors de combat; Federer, 37 in August, still floats above them all.

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“It is humbling to become the British number one,” Edmund said on Sunday night before confirmation of the inevitable end to Murray’s 12-year reign as the nation’s highest-rated player when the weekly ATP rankings are adjusted on Monday morning. He added that his rise had happened “perhaps unwittingly, as Andy has dropped down in rankings due to his injury”.

Nevertheless Edmund relishes Murray’s projected return to the Tour – probably at Queen’s in June, perhaps at Loughborough in May if he does a unique deal with the LTA to play in a one-off Challenger, indoors on hardcourt – to engage in the sort of rivalry UK men’s tennis has not had since Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski early in the millennium.

“Proud as I am, I would have been much happier had Andy stayed healthy and occupied his place at the very top where he belongs,” Edmund said. “I wish Andy a speedy recovery and I hope to battle it out with him in a more legitimate fashion in years to come.”

Although sidelined for the past fortnight with flu, Edmund edges up one place on the game’s honour board to a career-high 24th, while Murray, who was world No 1 for 42 weeks until September 2016, slips nine places to 29. He has not been ranked so low for eight years.

Since he established himself in the upper echelons of the game in the summer of 2008 Murray has rarely been out of the top 10 and then mainly through enforced absences because of surgeries or their lingering consequences. He reluctantly went under the knife for the second time in Melbourne in January to heal a chronic hip injury and said last week his recuperation was ahead of schedule.

Having not played since losing against Sam Querrey in the Wimbledon quarter-finals last summer, Murray understands he faces a serious challenge to get back among the elite when he returns.

Edmund said: “I’ll continue to work hard and represent Great Britain as best as I can. A bad dose of the flu virus kept me out in Buenos Aires and in Rio but I am back on track and excited to get back to it. I’m ready to play in Indian Wells [which starts on Monday] and Miami [19 March].”

Murray has beaten Edmund in their only two Tour meetings but he lost to him in the final of the short-form Tie Break Tens at the Royal Albert Hall in December 2015. Over three hours of the tournament, Edmund earned $250,000 – more than twice his take-home pay for the rest of the season.

He bought a London flat but also invested much of his winnings in his support team, and that has paid off handsomely over the past year, during which time he has won 39 of 65 matches (60%) and, more significantly, 10 of 14 in the four slam tournaments – including a run to the Australian Open semi-finals. He has also won 10 of his 15 best-of-five matches, which had been his abiding weakness.

Edmund has blossomed in confidence, as well as the execution of his intimidating ground strokes and improved serve, since hiring the respected Swedish coach Frederik Rosengren.

He has also relocated to the tax-friendly Bahamas, and his Starwings management team, led by Lawrence Frankopan, has just secured him a sponsorship deal with British Airways. Edmund flew economy to Australia this year. He was considerably upgraded after reaching the semi-finals – in the air and in the game.